Contact centers can provide numerous services to customers, and have been doing so for years. The idea of a contact center queue is not much different from that of standing in line at a bank and waiting to be helped by the next available teller. However, when a customer reaches the teller at a bank it is extremely rare that their communication is dropped in mid-conversation. Unfortunately, dropped communications can be quite common in a contact center context. Dropped communications are especially common in developing, and Third World, countries where a combination of network congestion, poor cellular reception, and an underdeveloped infrastructure contribute to interfering with communications. Whether the call is dropped on the part of the customer or the agent, a dropped communication can be a time consuming and frustrating event.
When communications are dropped in a contact center, a customer may attempt to call back into the contact center system. This call back typically results in the customer being re-queued for handling by an available resource. However, the customer will most likely be matched with a different resource than the resource originally handling the communication before the communication was dropped. A number of factors may contribute to the customer being matched with a different resource including, the size of a contact center, the number of contacts received at a contact center, a status of one or more resources at the contact center, the work requirements of one or more resources, and the like. As can be appreciated, a customer who has to repeat the entire process of queuing, matching, and repeating communications with a new resource may quickly become annoyed and dissatisfied.
Methods have been conceived to attempt to resolve this issue by allowing the resource to contact the customer in the event of a dropped communication. Unfortunately, these methods require that the customer be available when the resource attempts to make contact. Customer availability may be especially erratic when the customer's equipment, network, or provider is responsible for the dropped communication. Moreover, when a resource repeatedly attempts to contact a customer that resource cannot service other work at the contact center, costing time and money. As can be appreciated, the methods do not adequately solve the problem associated with dropped communications.